Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Reuters NewMedia - December 1, 2006
Speaking at an event to mark World AIDS Day, Alvares said the government would accept bids for a supply contract he described as the world's single largest order for condoms.
Last year the country of 185 million people handed out 300 million free condoms through the AIDS program, which the United Nations has cited for its effectiveness.
Massive education and publicity campaigns, often starring musicians and other personalities, have raised AIDS awareness in Brazil. Alvares said more than two-thirds of young Brazilians now use condoms in their first sexual experience compared with just 8 percent 20 years ago.
Alvares added that Brazil hoped to avoid the quality problems it encountered in a lot of 12 million condoms delivered as part of its last large order -- for 460 million condoms -- placed in 2004.
"It's a waste of time for us to hold a huge competition to buy millions and millions of condoms, and then find that 60 percent (of the 12 million) can't be used and have to be thrown away," he said.
Brazil returned the lot of condoms that failed to pass quality tests.
Brazil has stabilized its HIV transmission rate and now has an average rate of 33,000 new AIDS cases per year. In 2005, an AIDS incidence rate of 18 cases per 100,000 people was the lowest since 2000.
But AIDS program coordinator Mariangela Simao told Reuters the disease remains a concern in Brazil, especially after fresh data showed a surge in the number of cases among people over age 50, who are having more sex because of anti-impotence drugs.
Infection among men from 50 to 59 jumped to nearly 30 cases per 100,000 from 18, while infection among women in the same age category rose above 17 cases per 100,000 from six.
Simao described older people as the pre-AIDS generation and said they were more reluctant to use condoms.
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Additional reporting by Maria Pia Palermo
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